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Monday, January 14, 2008

Corn and chickpea flour fritters

Corn and chickpea flour fritters


Like a lot of people who enjoy cooking, I own a few cookbooks. Over Christmas and my birthday, I got given several to add to my collection.... plus I did buy a few myself!

I tell myself that I don't need to feel guilty about my cookbook collection since I do read each one I own. I'm sure I'm not the only one who takes cookbooks to read in bed!

The other weekend it was just Alastair and I at home for brunch. I had seen a recipe for pancakes or fritters using chickpea flour, but couldn't remember where I had read it. I tried flicking through a few of my newest cookbooks and online through my usual recipe websites but with no success. Gaaah! Don't you hate it when that happens? In the end I couldn't track down the recipe and had to wing it. That's the problem with reading so many books and food magazines - you get ideas and inspiration but then you can't remember where those ideas came from!

I ended up with corn and chickpea flour fritters. I bought the chickpea flour from an Asian grocery store to make onion bhaji and have used it a few times since. Plain flour would work as a substitute, but the chickpea flour gives a unique nutty depth of flavour.

On a side note, I have discovered that indian style chickpea flour is made from chana dal, which is a cousin of the chickpea, not an actual chickpea. There's lots of alternative names for this flour: chana dal flour, gram flour, dal flour, or besan flour to name a few. Actual chickpea flour (ie made from actual chickpeas) is popular in Italian cuisine and is called farina di ceci.

Corn and chickpea flour fritters


Corn and chickpea flour fritters

Makes about 6 medium fritters


1 cup frozen corn kernels
2 cups chickpea/besan flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons chopped chives
2 eggs
1 cup of milk (add a tad more if you think it's too thick)
Pepper
Oil spray
Cream cheese
6-8 cherry tomatoes, quartered and tossed with a dash of olive oil
Extra chives to garnish

Put all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
Mix together the eggs, milk, onion, and chives, season with pepper, then stir in the dry ingredients and mix lightly until combined.
Allow to stand for 10 minutes.
Heat a nonstick frying pan on medium heat, and lightly spray with oil.
Drop 1/4 cup measures of mixture on to the frying pan, allowing room for spreading, and cook over medium heat. Turn when bubbles come to surface, and cook another minute.
Put a dollop of cream cheese and some cherry tomatoes on top of the fritters, and garnish with some extra snipped chives.


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